Life after Traumatic Brain Injury

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I’m taking a brief sidestep today to write about a little thing myself and other brain injury survivors are doing next month (5th May).

We are going to run in the Belfast marathon.

Yes a marathon.

Admittedly we’re not all doing the whole 26 miles, we’re running as a relay so will do a leg each. But still this is a huge thing for all of us. I readily admit I’m petrified. It’s going to be a long, tiring day. There’s going to be thousands of people there, it’s a bit of a baptism of fire. I have moments of realisation and get scared and wonder if I can stay in bed instead.

I’m hoping for nice weather and a good mood that day, that’s all I need to power through. If I don’t sleep very well the night before my anxiety will rocket. This will make it slightly more difficult than I’d like it to be. But as I’m forever trying to tell myself, I can’t speculate on what ifs anymore, they have a tendency to be negative.

We are running as The Brainwaves, and got a lovely logo made up by the amazing Gary Erskine (comic book artist extraordinaire and friend of roller girls everywhere) whom I admire and respect so much. This will be on our team t-shirts, so if you watch you’ll spot us.

The marathon was a target we set ourselves, for me it’ll be an extremely cathartic moment. A time for me to say ‘I blooming well did it’. It was only a few months ago I was scared to run, I went on my first jog post op and ran like I was made out of wood, too scared to move in case I jiggled my brain about. All the brain Injury survivors in this team have had to overcome many obstacles to get to this point, it’s a real test for us. I am so proud to be part of it.